Peterborough United's first summer signing is an all-action midfielder

The 26 year-old arrives at the Weston Homes Stadium as a free agent having left Gillingham at the end of last season. He had moved to the Gills to link up with his former Millwall manager Neil Harris on a short-term contract last January and was a standout player in an ulitimately fruitless battle against relegation in League One.

Thompson has signed a two-year contract with a one year option. He made over 150 appearances for the Lions, the majority in the Championship.

Posh boss Grant McCann was pleased to get the deal over the line. McCann said: “Ben is a player we have admired for a long time. He can play as a number 8 or as a number 10 and is everything we love from a midfield player. He is aggressive in everything that he does. He plays on the front foot and has a great ability to drive at people with the ball. However, the biggest thing about Ben is he is his tremendous character and will fit into the group really well.”

Thompson has also enjoyed a loan at Portsmouth where he made 27 appearances in League One in th2 2018-19 season, scoring three times.

Thompson was delighted to put pen to paper at Posh and can’t wait to get started. He said: “It has been a bit of a whirlwind the past few weeks. It has been great to talk to the people at the club and it is something that I wanted to be a part of. I can’t wait to get started. I know a few of the lads already. I was with Nathan Thompson at Portsmouth and I know Sammie Szmodics and Mark Beevers, and have played against a lot of the other lads.

“I like to think I am an all-action midfielder. I really enjoyed my time at Millwall, I had some really good times there and it was great to get games under my belt at Gillingham in the second half of last season. It was important to get everything sorted here before pre-season and now I can come back and am raring to go.”